GHeslev’s Cords | 
and Our 
CAealth 


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https://archive.org/details/wesleyswordsourw0Ounse 


Tesley’s Cords and Our Health 


John Wesley had a great fear of the dan- 
gers of wealth, and his practice squared 
with his preaching upon the subject. 

During all the years of his life, whatever 
may have been his income, he lived on 
twenty-eight pounds (less than $150) a year, 
and gave away the rest. In his long life 
of eighty-eight years he gave to benevolent 
causes more than $200,000, while he ex- 
pended upon himself less than $15,000. 

We may well heed one’s teaching concern- 
ing the perils of riches who lived in such 
an unselfish manner with respect to his own 
possessions, 

And here is a strong utterance of Wesley’s 
upon the subject of religion and riches: 

“I do not see how it is possible, in the 
nature of things, for any revival of true 
- religion to continue long. For religion must 
necessarily produce both industry and fru- 
gality; and these can not but produce riches. 
But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, 
and love of the world in all its branches. 

“How, then, is it possible that the re- 
ligion of the heart, though it flourishes now 
as a green bay tree, should continue in this 
state? 

“Ts there no way to prevent this—this 
continual declension of pure religion? We 


3 


ought not to forbid people to be diligent and 
frugal. We must exhort all Christians to 
gain all they can, and to save all they can; 
that is, in effect, to grow rich! What way, 
then (I ask again) can we take, that our 
money may not sink us to the nethermost 
hell? There is one way, and there is no 
other under heaven. If those who ‘gain all 
they can,’ and ‘save all they can,’ will like- 
wise ‘give all they can,’ then, the more they 
gain, the more they will grow in grace, and 
the more treasure they will lay up in 
heaven.” 

That is both sound philosophy and a true 
interpretation of Christianity. Pure relig- 
ion by its very nature tends to produce 
riches, and riches tend to corrupt and de- 
stroy pure religion. What then should be 
the Christian’s course with respect to riches? 
Wesley points out the only answer to this 
question. 

The subject is one for good people in all 
climes and all times to consider most care- 
fully, and it behooves the Christian people 
of America especially to ponder the matter. 

Ours is the richest nation the world ever 
saw. The wealth of the ancient world was a 
mere bagatelle in comparison with the opu- 
lence of the United States. 

And notwithstanding the war our people 
are growing richer. To many of them even 
the war itself has brought a vast increase 
of worldly goods. Will this increased 


4 


wealth of our country doom us and damn 
us? Most certainly, unless our people be- 
come as pious as they are prosperous and 
as benevolent as they are opulent, 

In the South especially there must be in- 
creased benevolence. The high price of cot- 
ton, the demand for the coal and iron of 
Southern mines, and enhanced incomes from 
many other sources, have brought to the 
Southern people unprecedented wealth. They 
are now far richer than were their fathers 
before the Civil War. But are they as re- 
ligious? It is to be feared that they are 
not. Certainly they are not as generous 
as they are prosperous. They have learned 
how to make money much more rapidly 
than they have learned how to use it wisely 
and religiously. 

If the gifts of Southern men and women 
to educational institutions may be taken as 
an index to their benevolence generally, they 
can not be regarded as using their money 
very well. 

During the year 1916 gifts to higher edu- 
cation in the United States exceeded $35,- 
000,000, but Southern institutions received 
not quite $2,500,000. New England, with a 
population of only about 7,000,000 souls, gave 
to its educational institutions above $8,- 
000,000, while gifts to colleges and univer- 
sities in the South, which has a population 
of 28,000,000, aggregated no more than $2,- 
178,493,—and of this amount $370,000 was 


5 


given by Northern philanthropists to colleges 
for Negroes. 

One institution in Massachusetts received 
more than was given to all the Southern 
colleges and universities combined, includ- 
ing the $370,000 for the Negro institutions. 

Our section was at the beginning of the 
year 1916 far behind the North in the mat- 
ter of money invested in educational institu- 
tions, and at the close of the year, it was 
even further behind. As the year 1917 has 
progressed, our case has not improved. By 
January, 1918, we shall be still further be- 
hind both the North and the West. 

But have many of our Southern men the 
disposition to use their money for the pub- 
lic good? Do they see the dangers of 
hoarded wealth as Mr. Wesley pointed. out? 
Do they perceive the vast means of grace 
found in the religious use of money? 

Well, if men and women will not heed the 
words of such preachers as John Wesley, 
perhaps they will listen to what was said 
by a great merchant like the late Marshall 
Field. 

Just before he died Mr. Field said: “A 
man should interest himself in public affairs, 
There is no happiness in mere dollars. After 
they are acquired one can use but a moder- 
ate amount. It is given man to eat so much, 
to wear so much, and to have so much shel- 
ter, and more he can not use. When money 
has supplied these, its mission, so far as 


6 


the individual is concerned, is fulfilled, and 
man must look further and higher. It is 
only in wide public affairs, where money is 
a moving force toward the general welfare, 
that the possessor of it can possibly find 
pleasure, and that only in constantly doing 
more. The greatest good a man can do is to 
cultivate himself, develop his powers, in 
order that he may be of greater service to 
humanity.” 

In such use of money, as that which Mr. 
Field commended, is found the highest 
pleasure and the truest profit in wealth. All 
other use of earthly treasure is selfish and 
sinful,—and it is also “vanity and vexation 
of spirit.” 

Such use of money by a comparatively few 
Southern men would give the South a really 
great university in Hmory. Already much 
has been done, and perfect success is in easy 
reach, 

Why should not the year 1917 record gifts 
sufficient to assure to the South a really 
great university? 

The man whose gift is associated with this 
institution makes an imperishable invest- 
ment in an institution which is destined 
to become historic. It is not an ephemeral 
and experimental enterprise; it is perma- 
nent, 

The building of Emory University marks 
a new era in the South, and the men who 
make it will occupy a high place in South- 
ern history. 


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